I'm an author and advisor who focuses on helping those doing good in the world. I call myself a "champion of social good." As a Forbes Contributor I cover social entrepreneurship and impact investing. My books on personal finance and crowdfunding draw on his entrepreneurial finance experience as an investment banker, CFO, treasurer, and mortgage broker in order to help people use financial resources to do good. Previously I worked on the U.S. Senate Banking committee staff and earned an MBA at Cornell.

9/05/2012 @ 10:24AM66,895 views

The Real Reason The World Will Remember Bill Gates (Hint: It's not Windows 8)

Other areas of focus of the Global Health program include HIV/AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. Many of the world’s most impoverished countries not only face economic woes, but are also ravaged by tropical or other communicable diseases unknown in the developed world, impossibly hampering economic development. The Foundation is focusing resources on these forgotten or unknown diseases, like Guinea worm disease, to free impoverished countries from these lead weights preventing them from getting economically airborne.

The Foundation’s Global Development program is focused on improving conditions among countries where the 2.5 billion people who survive on less than $2 per day—and especially the 1 billion who are hungry—are living. The Foundation focuses on four areas:

Agricultural development

Financial services for the poor

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Other, special initiatives

Bill Gates with a researcher from the University of Toronto at the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle on August 14, 2012. Courtesy of the Gates Foundation.

One key area of focus within the third area is an effort to reinvent the toilet. According to the Foundation, over 2.6 billion people lack a “safe and affordable way to poop.” By reducing the cost and improving sanitation from a reinvented toilet, millions of lives can be saved and countries can reduce the cost of fighting diseases spread through poor sanitation. Two thirds of the world’s population does not use flush toilets. More than a billion people do not use toilets at all—they simply go where they can find a spot, creating a sanitation nightmare and spreading disease.

Here in the United States, the Foundation works to improve public education and provides college scholarships. In the United States, according to the Foundation, only about one third of students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college. The Foundation’s goal is to get every single high school student to graduate “college ready.” The foundation follows the principle that teachers matter more in student success “than any other factor inside schools.”

The Foundation estimates that some 4.5 million students over the current decade will not pursue college simply because they cannot afford it. The Foundation offers scholarships to underprivileged minorities to make their dreams of a college education possible. Even graduate school scholarships are available through the foundation. The Foundation focuses on scholarships in areas that will foster “leadership and public service” and that will “benefit local and global communities.”

The well-known author Malcolm Gladwell, recently quipped that “There will be statues of Gates across the third world.” William H. Gates will leave an indelible mark on the world and will be remembered around the world for his contributions, together with Melinda, in saving lives counted in the millions and improving lives for virtually everyone—to greater and lesser degrees—in the coming generations.

But the Gates cannot solve all of the world’s problems alone—even with the help of Warren Buffet.

The foundation is sponsoring, with a variety of other organizations, the Social Good Summit on September 22 through 24th in New York City. Organizers are encouraging Meetups around the world to discuss local needs and to create a global conversation. Meetups will occur in 1700 cities around the world (as the author of a book on social good, I’m helping to organize a meetup in my hometown.)

Get involved in the discussion and tell us what you’re doing to make the world a little better. After all the dollars are spent, lives are changed one person at a time. One inoculation here. A teacher there. A new toilet over there. They are all done one at a time. The one you help matters even in the long shadow of Bill Gates.

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Wealth in hands of good people does far better than the wealth in hands of anyone else, including the government. Bill & Melinda’s contributions are on the same scale as that of many big countries. In some cases, at par or better than United Nations? And, I’m sure they run more efficiently and stay focused on real work than United Nations (where there is a ton of overheads).

Has the nature of philanthropy changed forever at the turn of this century?

You are right. The scale of Gates giving is comparable to some large nations! I think philanthropy is changing in some ways. In and out of nonprofits there are entrepreneurs creating businesses that focus on impact. Investors are investing in social businesses. The combination of philanthropy and impact investing will accelerate the elimination of desperate poverty!